Overview
- Offers a new perspective on issues around genocide representation through the lens of kitsch
- Uses a comparative approach with a corpus that spans several genocide narratives
- Includes analyses of under-researched graphic novels, and provides a new perspective on Maus
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels (PSCGN)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book mobilises the concept of kitsch to investigate the tensions around the representation of genocide in international graphic novels that focus on the Holocaust and the genocides in Armenia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. In response to the predominantly negative readings of kitsch as meaningless or inappropriate, this book offers a fresh approach that considers how some of the kitsch strategies employed in these works facilitate an affective interaction with the genocide narrative. These productive strategies include the use of the visual metaphors of the animal and the doll figure and the explicit and excessive depictions of mass violence. The book also analyses where kitsch still produces problems as it critically examines depictions of perpetrators and the visual and verbal representations of sexual violence. Furthermore, it explores how graphic novels employ anti-kitsch strategies to avoid the dangers of excess in dealing with genocide. The Representation of Genocide in GraphicNovels will appeal to those working in comics-graphic novel studies, popular culture studies, and Holocaust and genocide studies.
Reviews
“Laurike in ’t Veld’s book … is a welcome and accessible contribution to the field. … attention to other artists and works, and to the productive possibilities of using kitsch as a category to think through the tensions of genocide graphic novels, makes this an original and laudable advance in comics studies.” (Candida Rifkind, Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, Vol. 3 (3), 2019)
“What sets Laurike in 't Veld’s work apart, giving her analysis and contribution a distinct and exciting angle, is its introduction of ‘kitsch’ as a theoretical tool. Here the concept is applied to comics that tackle difficult, sensitive, and emotionally charged events and memories in relation to genocide. in 't Veld convincingly demonstrates the value of ‘kitsch’ for understanding certain representational strategies of comics, and astutely appraises the limitations of such strategies. This is a scholarly work that genuinely opens opportunities for application and further discussion.” (Nina Mickwitz, University of the Arts London, UK and author of Documentary Comics: Graphic Truth-Telling in a Skeptical Age (Palgrave 2016))
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Laurike in 't Veld is a lecturer at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication and a research associate at the Center for Historical Culture, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Representation of Genocide in Graphic Novels
Book Subtitle: Considering the Role of Kitsch
Authors: Laurike in 't Veld
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03626-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-03625-6Published: 22 January 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-96962-2Published: 14 March 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-03626-3Published: 19 December 2018
Series ISSN: 2634-6370
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6389
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: IX, 230
Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour
Topics: Media and Communication, Popular Culture , Contemporary Literature, Cultural Theory, Memory Studies